Hiya,this isn't directly a management consulting question, but I'm guessing with so many commuters / consultants who spend nights away from home -you might be able to help.Am thinking of buying a kindle / sony equivalent / e-reader etc for reading on the commute into town /work travel.Part of me loves the idea of the practicality of being able to carry several books at once, and it being so portable. But the old fashioned/traditional part of me hates the idea of giving up on real books. Any thoughts? Anyone use one and got some tips on what/if to buy?

a number of phones these days have decent ebook apps on them. if you want something bigger then maybe an ipad or tablet so it has more than one use.

absolutely not. the ipad is a horrible e-reader for anything other than comic books (weight, glare, and usability issues). I have both the ipad and the kindle and I always leave the ipad at home and bring the kindle when I travel. If you're considering an e-reader, do some research and try one of the sonys out first in-store to see if you like the form factor enough to ditch books / magazines. The experience is different, but e-ink has come a long way and I actually prefer it for long reads (I read a lot of SF doorstop novels).If you are ready to take the plunge , then the kindle 3G is miles ahead of the others - brightest screen, longest battery, easiest to buy / load books on. The sony is cheap but slow. For me the USP of the kindle is the global 3G wireless which means I can check news and email on its (crappy but usable) linux browser.

Someguy I'm with you. I have both and could be more underwhelmed with the iPad. Don't know why I bothered apart from the ponce value.The Kindle is brilliant, but one failing is that you can't read PDFs which is a bit of an issue for me because I use it for studying and if I have any of our material is pdf, I'm stuffed.But iPad for reading should carry a health warning.

hey SP, have you got the older kindle (K1)? the new version (K3) can read PDFs natively. If you have the time and patience there are several PDF to kindle / DOC conversion services . If you have the K2 you can upgrade firmware to 2.3 to enable PDF support. Protected PDFs are a pain though, I agree - even new ereaders choke on them.

Thats for that, I will pass back to my 'world class' support group along with your note.Rolled conveniently into a tube that will fit right up thier miserable whining ar..s.

developing which point, there's nothing like a fat paper novel when you reach for the loo roll and find an empty cardboard tube... try your ereader then and see how useful it issorry to lower the tone - another vote for kindle based on eye-strain factor

Yes but taxi driver, its easier to grip the Kindle in your left hand when 'reviewing' adult related material.

sure, if you like it in black and white - why not? although ipad is more "stain resistant"...

Thanks for your thoughts and advice guys.As for the over-sharing regarding adult material....erm...thanks for your thoughts on this...though somehow i don't reckon I'll be reading that kind of thing on the commuter train...might upset the little old lady i end up sitting next to every day...or worse....it might excite her!